Excavation machines (machines with digger chains, machines with rock wheels, terrain levelers, etc.) often include an excavation tool (e.g., digger chain, cutting wheel, excavation drum, etc.) supported on a chassis. The load on the excavation tool can vary depending in part on the material that the digger tool encounters and the ground drive speed. When the load on the digger tool gradually increases (e.g., when the excavation machine moves from sandy soil to clay), an operator and/or an onboard automated speed control system can adjust the drive speed of the machine to account for the increased load on the excavation tool. However, in some situations the load on the excavation tool can change abruptly. For example, a digger chain of a trencher may encounter a tree root that causes the digger chain to jam or otherwise slow down abruptly. In such a situation the operator or automated speed control system may not be able to avoid or otherwise account for the unintended stoppage (i.e., jamming/stalling) of the excavation tool, which is undesirable as it can result in inefficient machine operations.
The present disclosure provides a trenching system and method that accounts for abrupt changes on the load encountered by the trencher attachment (e.g., boom and digger tool assembly).